UK consumers are turning their back on AI chatbots

According to the latest research by Cavell, a prominent research and consulting firm, nearly half of the adults in the UK consider the quality of customer service to be worse than it was three years ago. The 2024 Voice of the Consumer Report compiled responses from over 1,000 adults across the UK, unveiling that an increasing number of consumers are turning away from automated systems and chatbots for issue resolution.

The research demonstrated that 44% of consumers perceive a decline in the quality of customer service compared to three years back. Furthermore, about 35% of adults harbour the sentiment that automated systems and chatbots fail drastically in delivering satisfactory customer service. The consequences of these viewpoints have led to half of the UK consumers asserting their preference for human interaction as the quickest and most effective solution to customer service problems, offering a positive outcome.

Senior Analyst at Cavell, Finbarr Begley emphasised on consumers' growing discontentment with the current customer service experience. He stated, "Automated systems are seen as the solution but the huge differences in quality across systems like chatbots result in consumers getting more frustrated than helped. Expectations on the technology are soaring, fuelled by the AI narratives in the media, but the reality isn't there yet."

A few discerning observations from the research also included that 79% of UK adults favour the provision of customer service from someone within their own nation. Almost 45% of consumers have tolerated an issue with a product or service due to the inconvenience of interacting with customer service. Surprisingly, over a third of UK adults exhibited willingness to pay for a 'premium' customer service add-on that included advantages such as a dedicated contact point, personalised service, and priority response.

Begley added, "Added to the growth in consumer expectations on customer service, is the increased focus on deflection techniques to try and get consumers to self-solve issues. This is being done to reduce customer service costs but also means that consumers cannot easily reach a human agent even when they know they need to. This will continue to ease over the next few years as automated systems improve, and companies continue to add more methods of contacting them to their platforms."

The methodology for the consumer survey involved the participation of 1,019 consumers from various age groups across the UK at the beginning of 2024. All participants had at least one interaction with a business or organisation for customer service or had completed an online shopping transaction in the preceding six months.